Seven Year Stretch

I grumbled a bit and turned over. At my slight actions my head not so much exploded but let me know it was not all too pleased with me. Grumbling once again I cracked my lids and looked around. The first thing I noticed was that the television was still on. Moving to reach for the remote I then realized that there was a blanket thrown over me, and then as I moved again I realized that my shoes were off. All of this sunk in and I realized that I had passed out on the couch and that whomever had taken me home had also taken care of me more than I would have liked. Moving slowly so as not to upset my head anymore I searched for the remote, finding it not on my coffee table I settled for the bottle of water and pills I saw placed next to it. Swallowing the pills and chugging the remainder of the large bottle of water I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment. Hearing, and feeling, movement a bit farther down on the couch from me I opened my eyes.

"Mikey?" I asked confused.

Mikey stirred next to me on the couch and cracked open his eyes.

It was then that it dawned on me who had taken me from the club, driven me home, taken care of me last night in my drunken state and had ended up staying the night with me.

"Hey," he said groggily as he shifted his position to stretch out.

"You hadn't needed to stay with me," I said as I gingerly sat up, wincing as my head grumbled at me.

"Oh more than likely, but I did regardless. And if it makes you feel any better I ended up passing out watching t.v.," Mikey explained as he settled down to a regular sitting position after stretching.

"Mmm," I replied as I closed my eyes.

"If it makes you feel any better about last night, Frank had to be taken home just like you," Mikey said, a cheeky grin taking over his face.

I scowled at him through my half cracked lids.

"Somewhat," I replied, finally forcing myself to open my eyes and keep them that way.

I sat there for a bit, watching the cartoons dance across my television screen for a bit. It was cartoon network, yay for cartoons all day long! But then it hit me.

"Hey Mikey, what time is it?" I asked as I yawned, only slightly mincing as my head made a fuss.

I was lucky, between his actions and mine last night I didn't have as bad a hangover as I should be suffering from at the moment.

"It's like eleven thirty or something," Mikey replied nonchalantly.

"What?" I yelled loudly as I jumped wildly off the couch.

As I got to a frantic standing position I felt my head swim but chocked it down, Sean was going to kill me. I had to be at work over two hours ago.

"Chill Al, I called your work and told them the sitch," Mikey said as I waved where I stood.

"Great. Sean is going to kill me," I grumbled as I gingerly sat back down.

"You'll be fine. He chuckled when I said that you had come down with a bug," Mikey explained, taking his eyes off the cartoons and looking over at me.

I rolled my eyes as best I could.

"Uh huh, because that sounds so plausible. Especially since he knew I was going out last night, hence he chuckled," I scoffed as I rearranged the blanket over me, stretching it out to cover Mikey, regardless of whether or not he wanted any.

He gladly accepted it and pulled it farther over his lap.

"Well if it helps any he wasn't upset and said he could handle things on his own for the day but that you were expected to be there Monday morning bright and early. With coffee. If your stomach bug was any better," Mikey said with a grin.

"Ugh," I said as I let my head fall back against the back of the couch.

***

Mikey and I sat there watching cartoons for a while till something else finally dawned on me. Shelly.

"What time did Shelly roll around home at?" I asked, wondering where my house mate and best friend currently was at.

"I don't think she came home last night. She was still with Ray and Gerard when I took you home and saw Bob taking Frank home," Mikey answered as he continued to watch the television screen.

I scoffed a bit, trying not to laugh. I hoped she hadn't taken things to that step last night. Mikey seemed to have heard me or read my mind.

"Don't worry, she didn't seem to be too friendly with Gerard last night. And as much as he seemed to be taken with her he has a good head on his shoulders," Mikey explained, tearing his eyes off the commercial now playing to look at me.

I scoffed again and watched as Mikey raised a sceptic eyebrow at me.

"Oh no, it has nothing to do with your brother. That was all directed at Shelly. The new her can be very, ah, out going and persuasive so I've heard," I answered, hoping he understood that I didn't doubt Gerard's integrity.

"Ahh, I see. And what do you mean you've heard? Wouldn't you know first hand? You two do live together," Mikey asked, cartoons long since forgotten at the moment.

I guess Shelly had kept her side of the silent and unspoken agreement we had somehow come up with. She hadn't opened her mouth about me over the past seven years and silently I thanked her for being the level headed, yet crazy, girl I loved so much.

"Yeah I haven't exactly been around for a while," I answered as truthfully as possible.

"That makes sense. Frank had mentioned something about you being abroad and knowing like a gagillion languages or something. And then something about you telling Shelly something in a language that sounded like you were coughing up a hair ball," Mikey said, chuckling at whatever image was forming in his brain.

I cringed inwardly at the mention of Frankie. Whom I still had yet to start calling just Frank. It was force of habit. All I had to go on for seven years was the scrawled name across the back of the photos, and it had read Frankie. Not Frank. Some habits die hard.

"What was the cringe for?" Mikey asked, still not having turned back to the cartoons.

Damn him.

"You saw that did you? And here I thought it was an inward type thing. Oh well," I sighed, hoping to redirect the conversation with my mental powers.

I seemed to need to recharge their batteries.

"Was it because I mentioned Frankie or because I talked about you being abroad? You don't seem to like to talk about either," Mikey said, sounding rather intuitive.

"Has anyone ever told you that you know more than is good for your health?" I asked, eyes closed.

"I have a habit of picking up things because I don't talk too much from time to time. Bob is usually the one to pick up on the incredibly subtle things, but I catch my fair share. And it seems you shut up on both subjects almost equally," Mikey said, sounding wise and all knowing.

Which I was starting to gather he was, and hopefully not as much as I was gathering Bob was. If last night, before I decided to get wasted, was an indication I figured I wasn't going to be hearing the last of it from him. Or hopefully I would be proven wrong. I sighed loudly and irritably.

"Can it really be all that bad?" Mikey asked, still not letting it go.

I cracked my eyes open again and turned to give him a look.

"In some ways no. Do you even remember what I was like that one night back seven years?" I asked, not thinking it possible but hoping since it would make me explaining a little easier.

"A little I guess, very different from the you sitting before me now I can say with confidence at least. Frank never really let us all forget you, even if we wanted to. You made quite an impression on all of us that night, him more than the rest of us," Mikey said, his voice sounding like he was hinting at something else.

But due to either my slight hangover or my sheer will not to want to look into it more I ignored it.

"It's true that I went abroad, but what you don't know is that I only just came back a little bit ago. Like two weeks or so," I explained, mentally fighting with myself over how much exactly I felt like telling him.

"Okay so you've been gone a bit. Seeing the world never hurt anyone," Mikey said nonplussed, shrugging his shoulders for added affect.

"Not just a bit Mikey, seven years. I left the next day and never looked back as soon as I boarded my plane and flew over the ocean and into international territory," I said, hoping he would catch my drift.

Though in all actuality I had no idea what the drift was really.

"Wow," was all Mikey uttered at my statement.

"Yeah," I answered.

"So what exactly did you do over there?" Mikey asked after a silent moment with the sounds of long forgotten cartoons filling the background noise.

"A lot. I went to college in Britain and then back packed the rest of the known continents basically. I saw the world as you said, and never once thought of stepping back on United soil. I was finding myself, changing myself as much as I could," I offered.

"Why?" was Mikey's only response.

I cringed again, and this time I knew it was solely inwardly. I didn't know how to explain it to him, without bringing up Frankie that is. But in general as well. There were things not even Shelly knew about and I didn't know how I felt about telling it to an almost complete stranger. And regardless of everything Mikey really was still a complete stranger.

I went to open my mouth to say some half ass excuse, some little white lie to cover up my inability to tell him much but was saved by the sound of crashing coming from the front door.

"I'm here!" Shelly's loud voice rang through the house.

I winced a little at the sound of the door slamming into the wall and the volume at which she announced her arrival. Like I wouldn't pick up on the fact that she was home by her entrance.

"And we come baring breakfast food!" I heard a familiar voice announce just as loudly behind her.

I turned my head to smile at Gerard and his arms laden with food.

"Oh thank god, I was starving," Mikey said gratefully as he leapt up and went towards his brother and the morning repast.

"Why didn't you say something Mikey?" I asked, a frown making itself known on my face.

"Because I didn't want you to have to cook for me," Mikey explained as he took some of the bags into the kitchen, followed by his brother and Shelly.

"Why didn't you just make yourself something to eat?" I asked as I still sat on the couch, looking into my now filling kitchen.

"Because Mikey is not allowed to cook breakfast, he sticks forks in toasters!" Gerard hollered back at me.

It was followed by an ow on his account and a grumble that I could only guess was from Mikey.

Laughing a bit I stood up to make my way into the kitchen.

"Someone definitely has to explain that one to me at some point," I chuckled, my head feeling better at the sheer mention of breakfast food.

"All in due time, all in due time. Just hide your toaster in the mean time," a voice said behind me.

I turned to find Ray taking off his shoes in my entry way, his arms as well holding bags of food.

"How much food for breakfast did you buy?" I asked as I entered the kitchen after a grin and a nod in Ray's direction.

"Enough to feed an army. We eat a lot after a night out of drinking," Gerard said as he started to unload the bags of their contents.

I raised an eyebrow at him in question.

"Hey old habits die hard. I may not drink anymore but a night out still has the same affects on me the morning after. Food wise that is," Gerard answered, shrugging his shoulders as he gathered the empty plastic bags he had created.

I opened the pantry to put away the bags for him since I had stuck out my hand to take them from him, and he had gladly obliged.

"How many are we feeding exactly? Did you invite over the entire club from last night?" I asked as I watched the food begin to pile up as Shelly went banging around for cooking implements.

"Just us and you guys," Ray said as he put his now empty plastic bags away where I had put Gerard's.

"Is it food yet? I'm starving," I heard Bob's voice resonate throughout my house.

It was funny how I could easily recognize his.

"You're starting to sound like Mikey," Ray chided playfully as Bob appeared at the entrance that separated my kitchen from the living room.

"Well he kind of rubs off on one after so long," Bob replied as he rubbed his stomach.

As Bob walked further into the kitchen I saw what I was hoping I wasn't going to see. Frankie. He was standing sheepishly in the spot he had been hiding in behind Bob a moment ago. The only thing that saved me from, well I don't know exactly what you'd call the feeling in the pit of my stomach, but whatever it was Frankie's look of pure and total green saved me. He looked like he was suffering from a hangover still that I should have been suffering from. Guess Bob hadn't taken care of him like Mikey had me. This was going to be an interesting breakfast to say the least.